Farms are vast sources of data, generating information from machines to irrigation systems. However, this data is often siloed across different formats, making it difficult to read and build upon. Leaf, a New York-based startup, aims to change that by building the Plaid of farm data.
Co-Founder and CEO Bailey Stockdale’s Vision
According to TechCrunch, Leaf takes a farm’s unstructured data, standardizes it, and loads it into an application programming interface (API). This allows Leaf customers, ranging from crop insurance providers to agtech startups, to better utilize and build upon the data. Customers pay for the service based on how many acres their data is harvested from.
The Idea Behind Leaf
Bailey Stockdale, co-founder and CEO of Leaf, shared the story behind the company’s inception. In 2018, while visiting his family farm in Illinois, he observed the manager manually checking the temperature to decide which day was best for planting seeds. This anecdote stuck with Stockdale.
"Agriculture is a funny industry; it’s simultaneously extremely sophisticated and totally antiquated," Stockdale said. "My family has had a farm in Illinois for over 100 years. In that time, a lot of things have changed but some things haven’t."
Stockdale realized that his family farm was not alone in struggling to decipher the vast amounts of data generated by their tractors. He began calling other tech companies, asking how they made use of this data, but no one had a clear answer.
"I just started calling people and asking them, ‘How do you do this?’ And no one had a good answer," Stockdale said. "I said, ‘OK, maybe it is time to go find something else to do.’ There is no way anyone can break into this infrastructure; maybe it would be interesting to solve this. If I build this infrastructure layer so they can build these other use cases on top of it, there is a huge range of use cases that need this data."
Leaf’s Journey
Stockdale decided to pivot and launch Leaf, aiming to build an infrastructure layer for farm data. The process was tedious, as he had to reverse engineer each data file type separately.
"We started selling in mid-2021 and now work with more than 80 companies, including agriculture giants like Bayer and Syngenta," Stockdale said.
Recent Funding
Leaf recently raised a $11.3 million Series A round, led by Spero Ventures with participation from existing investors, including S2G Ventures, Radicle Growth, and SP Ventures, among others.
"We’re going to put the money toward building out a commercial go-to-market team," Stockdale said. "I’ve been doing everything myself for the past year and a half, but it’s time to scale."
The Future of Farm Data
Leaf’s mission is to standardize and utilize farm data, making it easier for companies to build upon. With its recent funding and growth, Leaf is poised to make a significant impact in the agriculture industry.
"By building an infrastructure layer for farm data, we can unlock new use cases and opportunities," Stockdale said. "We’re excited about the future of farm data and our role in shaping it."
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